On my latest runthrough...

On my current runthrough with my Nord spellsword Ingin Thorne, I've been trying to take it slow.

I'm trying to organically grown my stats from an RP perspective.

Knowing that she was relatively weak magically, she spent most of her time building her hard skills until about level 20 (one-handed (39), light-armor (28), sneak (50) and taking archery (63) training from Faendal when she could).

Been working on her smithing and enchanting as well. Smithing is at 51 (with Steel and Elven perks) using a combination of hunting pelts and skins and purchasing leather from vendors and enchanting is at 68 (mostly from making daggers with found soul gems rather than buying) - no perks yet (waiting for 100 and double enchantments).

Now that she's in the mid-20's she's joined the college and is working on her magic as well (68 Conjuration, 57 Illusion, 38 Destruction, 32 Alteration & 26 Restoration) and has taken to using the Bound Bow as her primary sneak weapon. Wearing 50% vampire destruction armor (12%) and an amulet of Akatosh (25%).

I'm making sure that she sleeps at least 8 hours at a stretch, preferably at night, but, if she's been up more than 24 hours, she needs to find an Inn or go home and sleep 8 hours regardless of the time of day.

She must eat 3 times per day if at all possible, although, if wandering the wilds, snacking is fine.

No fast travel, although she uses carriages. No normal person just runs the roads constantly, you know, like she's a jogger?

It's been fun! I'm used to grinding things so it's been an adjustment for things just to grow organically with normal activities and it's been an adjustment to have to actually use strategy and multiple disciplines for survival purposes rather than grind something and beat the crap our of everything with it.

I have a stack of unfinished quests (and unstarted), particularly local ones, but I don't want her running around like a chicken with her head cut off catering to everybody's wants.

Query: I'm currently using an elven war ax of exquisite quality and am about to head in to Bloated Man's (no quest) and am wondering if anyone has opinions on the sword I find there. Is it worth using that instead of the war ax? It won't do as much damage, but it does have some cool affects.

Thoughts?

Are you talking about that Blades sword? I can't remember the effects, but I'm pretty sure Blades swords will do Elven sword damage. Not much less than an Elven war axe, but also quicker to swing.

JoeReese said:

Are you talking about that Blades sword? I can't remember the effects, but I'm pretty sure Blades swords will do Elven sword damage. Not much less than an Elven war axe, but also quicker to swing.

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It's called Bolar's Blade and it sucks. Use it 5 times and it needs recharged. Looks nice on the wall though.[emoji12]

Understood. I usually prefer my own enchantments anyway, at least once I'm skilled enough to make them do decent damage. On the bright side, when you get to SkyHaven Temple, you get like 6 unenchanted Blades swords. Elven damage, 10 lbs, and upsmithed with only the steel perk. Not too shabby.

That sounds quite fun, a bit of everything. At some point I might give it a go. Difficulty down to master but with so many active skill trees and not enough perks to go around that I can see it being a fun challenge

Screw eating three times a day. I've never foregone sleeping every day, and I try to limit fast traveling too. Sometimes I'll run somewhere and fast travel back or vice versa but I couldn't imagine never using it. When I was starting out I never fast traveled but eventually noticed there were certain routes that I seemed to spend far too much time taking; like any of the minor cities to the major ones because of no carraiges.

Saying that, I can see how strict restrictions could make a fun RP game. I like the idea of just wearing furs and being a hunter- maybe giving myself a requirement to gather ten pelts before entering a city could make an interesting, immersive game

Ingin has switched over to an elven bow with soul trap enchantment. Somewhere around level 35 it stopped being very effective. Sorry designers, but if an Imperial bow at superior can take down an average drauger in one shot, why does it take 2 or 3 with the bound bow. It is only adept after all.

Oh well, off to Labarynthian!

Snake Tortoise said:

Saying that, I can see how strict restrictions could make a fun RP game. I like the idea of just wearing furs and being a hunter- maybe giving myself a requirement to gather ten pelts before entering a city could make an interesting, immersive game

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I have a current character I'm playing (find his journal in my signature) and he only uses hide armor that he makes himself from animals he kills. The armor has to be replaced after any battle where his health drops below 50%. It's great fun! You really feel like you're making it on your own in the world of Skyrim.

BIGwooly said:

I have a current character I'm playing (find his journal in my signature) and he only uses hide armor that he makes himself from animals he kills. The armor has to be replaced after any battle where his health drops below 50%. It's great fun! You really feel like you're making it on your own in the world of Skyrim.

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You're probably where I heard the idea from then! It sounds fun but constantly replacing the armour would put me off.

I do this on most of my characters. I only require 2 meals and 4ish hours of sleep(and can push it to 8 hours every 2 days if need be) a day. No fast travel and don't jog like a maniac. Another one is loot and armor. Armor you find on folks probably isn't gonna fit you from the get go(most armors were custom made ya'know) and you obviously aren't gonna carry 3 sets of armor around. Realistic carry weights and rules about what you can realistically carry with you in say.....a knapsack.

The RP possibilities get much deeper when you start thinking, "Could my character use/carry/do this?"